I promised myself I wasn’t going to write about politics, but it was too difficult not to. After all, ‘tis the season.

If the upcoming election was a vote for who was going to be the father of my children, Ann Romney and Michelle Obama’s speeches would have been brilliant.

Unfortunately, the election in November is going to be for the next president of the United States, and I personally found Michelle Obama and Ann Romney’s speeches lacking in substance.

Let’s start with the bulk of what both ladies’ speeches were about. In short, each speech was some form of, “My husband was poorer than your husband.”

Obama said of her husband, “…he was still the guy who’d picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement going by through a hole in the passenger side door. He was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table he’d found in a dumpster, and whose only pair of decent shoes was half a size too small.”

But that’s nothing compared to what Ann Romney had to say about her husband: “We got married and moved into a basement apartment. We walked to class together, shared the housekeeping, and ate a lot of pasta and tuna fish. Our desk was a door propped up on sawhorses. Our dining room table was a fold down ironing board in the kitchen.”

Good to know. If you all want a little flashback you can come to my house for a dinner of saltine crackers and rice. I’ll even come pick you up in my 1991 Dodge Spirit.

I understand the need to humanize these men. I also recognize the importance of knowing where they come from. However, I think Ann Romney and Michelle Obama could have focused on more important issues.

These women had many similar themes in their speeches. First, they understand the common American. They have met the men, women, and children of this country, struggling to pay the bills.

Next, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney came from poor families. These men understand what it means to succeed, because they had to work to get where they are today.

Lastly, and I think most importantly, Michelle Obama and Ann Romney know what their husbands need to do to help America succeed.

But, what is it?

I heard nothing about what these men actually plan to do, nor did I hear any ideas the ladies themselves may have. Michelle Obama and Ann Romney did what wives are supposed to do: give the voters a point of view of their husbands that others
rarely see.

I’m not saying the speeches given by the ladies were bad. In fact, Michelle Obama gave one of the best speeches at the Democratic National Convention. However, the speeches were off topic. The speeches should have specified what their husbands have done, will do, and want to do.

But I think the reason the speeches bothered me so much was because they were echoes of what both conventions focused on: social issues. I have to wonder if the upcoming election will focus more on social issues rather than economic or financial matters.

In the end, both women gave impressive speeches. I think I choose President Obama to father
my children.